Alumni's musical startup raises $1.3M from prominent investors

ECE ILLINOIS alumni Samuel Speizman Walder (CompE '17) and Vishnu A Indukuri (CS '16) created a startup called Trala that teaches its users how to play the violin. Founded in 2017, Trala has raised $1.29 million in seed funding led by Chicago's Origin Ventures and some of their investors included high profile backers including Techstars Ventures, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, "and three top executives from the language-learning app Duolingo - CEO Luis Von Ahn, VP of Business Bob Meese, and CTO Severin Hacker," according to ChicagoInno. 

Built using Julliard-approved teaching methods, Trala listens and provides real-time feedback while you play the violin. Trala claims to be able to help users learn the violin faster and more efficiently than a standard private teacher. "First-time violinists can learn their first song in 10 minutes instead of 3 weeks," Walder stated. "We're unlocking a skill that has been out of reach to most people for hundreds of years."

Within just 30 days, Trala can help users learn to play songs like "Amazing Grace" and for $120 per year, users can unlock access to unlimited lessons. The Trala app has been downloaded more than 60,000 times and Walder said that "Trala taught over 40,000 lessons in 2018."

 

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